I had a small delay between movie reviews this time around. This time it was just because of a long work day, so I wasn't able to work a movie in. I tried watching A Grim Becoming (2014) Sunday night, I didn't make it far before I was snoozing and woke up about twenty minutes later. I gave up and decided to go to bed. I tried again yesterday while starting over. I almost made it to the end and went to sleep again. I had enough time to pick up where I went to sleep at and watched the rest of the movie from there. Believe me, it wasn't the movie that was putting me to sleep. A Grim Becoming is another movie that my friend Terry sent to me. This one is by the same folks as the last film I watched for my at home stuff, Ombis: Alien Invasion.
Raphael (Brandyn T. Williams) is a young executive at a large distribution company. He is on the verge of losing a large deal, but when he finds out that someone in his family has died, he drops everything and heads home. Once he reaches his hometown, he gets into a minor accident and wrecks his car trying to avoid a homeless person in the road, Everyone is alright, though Raphael takes some licks, then the homeless guy suffers a heart attack. Raphael sees the grim reaper trying to take this guys soul, which spells doom for the Reaper. The skull head rolls to Raphael and he passes out. Raphael soon learns that he is now a grim reaper. He doesn't want the job, but Death (Michael Sciabarrasi) isn't going to let him out of it.
A Grim Becoming was co-written by T.R. Smith, Mark Mendola, Christopher Brechtel, Janeen Avery, and Adam R. Steigert, who also directed. This is a quirky film that caught me by surprise. It is a black comedy that I wished had taken the subject matter a bit more seriously at times. It was also full of weird characters, which I didn't mind at all. I have to say that I really enjoyed the story here. I don't know of any other horror film where we get someone that becomes a grim reaper. There are various films that pit characters against a grim reaper, but this is the first time for a character becoming one. I was wondering if the writers might have gotten the idea from watching The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. It certainly is an interesting idea, how someone would react to having to collect the souls of those who are about to die. As I said, I do wish it had been a more serious film, but it still works. It does have some serious moments at least. I really felt for Jamie, played by Devanny Pinn, when she thought Raphael was trying to avoid her. There are some other serious moments as well, but I did feel the comedy stood out way more than the serious moments did. I know I missed some things with the plot because I couldn't always hear what was being said thanks to the background music. Even so, there are some interesting conversations between Raphael and Death. The way that music was used at times felt a bit odd. The music would change with the tone of the film. If there was a tense scene and something funny happened during it, the music would change to fit what was happening. I didn't really see the point of changing the music in that way. I mean, we get it, something funny happened for a moment there. No need to change the music to make sure we know. I was also getting a little annoyed with Raphael trying to hide something that was going on from others around him. It was being done in such obvious ways, acting funny after shoving Death into a closet for example, that I was surprised the other characters didn't call him out on it more often. It wasn't something that I hated, but I did feel it got overplayed after a while.
To make up for all of that, there is some wonderful acting and characters to be found in A Grim Becoming. I wasn't sure about Devanny Pinn at first because I wasn't all that impressed by her character's introduction. She ended up really impressing me later in the film though. Brandyn T. Williams was very good in the lead role. I liked his scenes best when interacting with Michael Sciabarras, who also gave a great performance. Bill Oberst Jr. had perhaps the weirdest character in Phil. He didn't talk much but he didn't need to with the odd behavior. My hands-down favorite actor from A Grim Becoming was Aryn Fitzgerald. I didn't know what to think of her character at first, but once she got going with Melantha Blackthorne's character, she was great. I just loved that whole exchange. Wonderfully written and acted.
The effects were okay. Things could get bloody and I do mean bloody. It looked like a bucket of blood would go flying at someone at times. There isn't a lot of gory effects to be found really. There seemed to be more effects after the main story was over than the rest of the feature. Again, the effects there were okay, but the chain of death was great. One thing I liked was that the grim reapers would appear as skeletons. It could look silly, but I still thought it was a nice touch. It was something different instead of showing the reaper as a human all the time.
Even though it took me a couple of tries to get through all of A Grim Becoming, it was a nice surprise. As much as I loved parts of the story and movie, I didn't really fall in love with the movie in general. If it had been a bit more of a serious film, I think that would have changed my view of it a lot. Even with my average rating, I would highly suggest giving A Grim Becoming a watch someday if you haven't already. Even with the issues I had with it, I'm looking forward to giving it another watch soon.
3 out of 5 I would make the best Grim reaper!
Raphael (Brandyn T. Williams) is a young executive at a large distribution company. He is on the verge of losing a large deal, but when he finds out that someone in his family has died, he drops everything and heads home. Once he reaches his hometown, he gets into a minor accident and wrecks his car trying to avoid a homeless person in the road, Everyone is alright, though Raphael takes some licks, then the homeless guy suffers a heart attack. Raphael sees the grim reaper trying to take this guys soul, which spells doom for the Reaper. The skull head rolls to Raphael and he passes out. Raphael soon learns that he is now a grim reaper. He doesn't want the job, but Death (Michael Sciabarrasi) isn't going to let him out of it.
A Grim Becoming was co-written by T.R. Smith, Mark Mendola, Christopher Brechtel, Janeen Avery, and Adam R. Steigert, who also directed. This is a quirky film that caught me by surprise. It is a black comedy that I wished had taken the subject matter a bit more seriously at times. It was also full of weird characters, which I didn't mind at all. I have to say that I really enjoyed the story here. I don't know of any other horror film where we get someone that becomes a grim reaper. There are various films that pit characters against a grim reaper, but this is the first time for a character becoming one. I was wondering if the writers might have gotten the idea from watching The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. It certainly is an interesting idea, how someone would react to having to collect the souls of those who are about to die. As I said, I do wish it had been a more serious film, but it still works. It does have some serious moments at least. I really felt for Jamie, played by Devanny Pinn, when she thought Raphael was trying to avoid her. There are some other serious moments as well, but I did feel the comedy stood out way more than the serious moments did. I know I missed some things with the plot because I couldn't always hear what was being said thanks to the background music. Even so, there are some interesting conversations between Raphael and Death. The way that music was used at times felt a bit odd. The music would change with the tone of the film. If there was a tense scene and something funny happened during it, the music would change to fit what was happening. I didn't really see the point of changing the music in that way. I mean, we get it, something funny happened for a moment there. No need to change the music to make sure we know. I was also getting a little annoyed with Raphael trying to hide something that was going on from others around him. It was being done in such obvious ways, acting funny after shoving Death into a closet for example, that I was surprised the other characters didn't call him out on it more often. It wasn't something that I hated, but I did feel it got overplayed after a while.
To make up for all of that, there is some wonderful acting and characters to be found in A Grim Becoming. I wasn't sure about Devanny Pinn at first because I wasn't all that impressed by her character's introduction. She ended up really impressing me later in the film though. Brandyn T. Williams was very good in the lead role. I liked his scenes best when interacting with Michael Sciabarras, who also gave a great performance. Bill Oberst Jr. had perhaps the weirdest character in Phil. He didn't talk much but he didn't need to with the odd behavior. My hands-down favorite actor from A Grim Becoming was Aryn Fitzgerald. I didn't know what to think of her character at first, but once she got going with Melantha Blackthorne's character, she was great. I just loved that whole exchange. Wonderfully written and acted.
The effects were okay. Things could get bloody and I do mean bloody. It looked like a bucket of blood would go flying at someone at times. There isn't a lot of gory effects to be found really. There seemed to be more effects after the main story was over than the rest of the feature. Again, the effects there were okay, but the chain of death was great. One thing I liked was that the grim reapers would appear as skeletons. It could look silly, but I still thought it was a nice touch. It was something different instead of showing the reaper as a human all the time.
Even though it took me a couple of tries to get through all of A Grim Becoming, it was a nice surprise. As much as I loved parts of the story and movie, I didn't really fall in love with the movie in general. If it had been a bit more of a serious film, I think that would have changed my view of it a lot. Even with my average rating, I would highly suggest giving A Grim Becoming a watch someday if you haven't already. Even with the issues I had with it, I'm looking forward to giving it another watch soon.
3 out of 5 I would make the best Grim reaper!
